So what, exactly, do French parents feed their babies? Leeks and pumpkin, endive and chard…& more!

Many readers have written in asking introducing new foods to their babies. Some of you have babies who are just starting solids, and are interested in trying the French approach. Good for you! Research shows that diversifying your baby’s tastebuds is one of the best way to ensure they’re a lover of healthy food when they grow up!

To compare the French versus American approaches, a great place to start is the French equivalent of the American Academy of Pediatrics: the French Society of Pediatrics (FSP–also known as the Société Française de Pédiatrie).

Just like the AAP, the FSP produces online resources, including guides for feeding, and introducing your baby to solid foods. The focus of this advice is on ‘food diversification’.

In practice, French parents introduce a new veggie every 3 or 4 days. A recent study found that they introduced, on average, 6 new veggies in the first month, and more than 40% of the babies in the study were introduced to between 7 and 12 vegetables.
(Source: Maier, A., C. Chabanet, B. Schaal, P. Leathwood, and S. Issanchou. 2007. “Food-Related Sensory Experience From Birth Through Weaning: Contrasted Patterns in Two Nearby European Regions.” Appetite 49: 429-40.)

When asked to explain why they serve so many veggies, the French parents mentioned “taste development”, which is prioritized by French paediatricians and parenting books! The FSP tells parents: children’s appetite diminishes around the age of 2 years old. This is when ‘neophobia’ (fear of new foods) tends to appear (in about 3 out of 4 children). It’s important to maintain the “4 meals per day” structure to the eating routine, without forcing kids to eat. So before the ages of 2 and 3, French parents are eager to introduce their child to lots of flavors, textures, and tastes. (In contrast, the AAP explicitly tells parents not to serve babies adult food, on the grounds that it contains too much salt and preservatives. Slightly confusing–as it sounds like they are assuming that parents wouldn’t be making scratch-cooked meals for themselves at home!?)

So what veggies are French parents serving? The Society of French Pediatrics provides a list of starter vegetables at 5/6 months (I’ve placed the original text, in French, below).

They note that any of the following can be mixed into a small amount of potatoes, which should be introduced separately first.

First foods for babies
-carrots
-green beans
-spinach
-zucchini (peeled and seeds removed)
-leeks (whites only)
-pumpkin
-endive and chard can be used in limited quantities, and only baby endives and baby chard (to limit the amount of fibre)
-green peas can be used only if they are ‘extra-fine’, and served in small quantities. The French think that green peas are really hard on the digestive system and don’t tend to serve them until the babies are a bit older. The document also suggests limiting carrots, which they state can cause constipation.

Now, this list may not make sense to anyone with a nutrition background–at least if they received their training in the US. I’m not necessarily defending it! But it’s interesting that it is so different from the American approach.

From 9 months onwards:
The FSP recommends that parents wait before introducing certain vegetables which are too rich in fibre or pose a higher allergic risk: cabbage, turnip, onion, green leek, celery, celery root (celeriac), green peas, tomatoes, Jerusalem artichoke (salsify), cardoons, artichoke, peppers, eggplant, parsley. These are to be introduced around 9 months if the child is handling the other veggies fine. Then other veggies are added too, like fennel, cauliflower, broccoli, and beets. Note: the rate of allergies in France is approximately 5 to 8% (similar to that in the US) (source: Maier et al (2007)).

They also suggest starting with fruits later, and note that these should be cooked before pureeing for younger babies.

From 18 months onwards, the FSP suggests that babies can eat all vegetables. But they recommend waiting on ‘dried beans’ like kidney beans until they can chew them properly? They might pose a choking hazard.

The AAP guidelines are quite different. The first food they mention on their HealthyChild.org website is baby cereal. They mention vegetables (squash, peas, corn, carrots), but don’t provide a specific list (and don’t divide this list into age categories). When they provide a sample daily menu for an 8 to 12 month old baby, they simply mention ‘yellow or orange vegetables’ and ‘green vegetables’. Not specific enough to be helpful, in my opinion. And what about ‘red vegetables’? Or ‘purple ones’? As a new mom, I think I would have appreciated a list with more specifics.

The AAP does, however, mention warnings about nitrates and allergies that you should definitely read about–particularly with respect to vegetables like spinach. In fact, they warn parents against home-prepared baby foods: “NOTE: If you make your own baby food, be aware that home-prepared spinach, beets, green beans, squash, and carrots are not good choices during early infancy. They may contain large amounts of nitrates. Nitrates are chemicals that can cause an unusual type of anemia (low blood count) in young babies. Commercially prepared vegetables are safer because the manufacturers test for nitrates. Peas, corn, and sweet potatoes are better choices for home-prepared baby foods.”

The FSP makes other recommendations that the AAP might not agree with. For example, they recommend putting your baby on a ‘four meals a day’ feeding schedule from around 9 months old: breakfast, lunch, snack (which is like a mini-meal), and dinner. They recommend sticking to this rigorously. The AAP suggests, in contrast, three meals and three snacks per day (breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack). It’s worth noting that France has the lowest rate of child obesity in the developed world–by far. When I moved to France, I know I found it very hard to believe that my daughters (then in kindergarten and preschool) didn’t need to be constantly eating. But according to the French they can wait comfortably between meals–even as babies. Controversial I know!

Other FSP recommendations: at the age of 5 months, they suggest making a thin vegetable soup (more like a bouillon) and serving this to your baby in their bottle, mixed with milk. By gradually reducing (not eliminating) the amount of milk, you get your baby used to eating vegetable soup. They even suggest that you can mix a spoonful or two of store-bought baby purees with the baby’s milk (again, in a bottle) to introduce them to new tastes! Or you can serve a thin soup using a spoon, before moving on to thicker purees. Definitely not the same as American advice!

A final, interesting note: the French do not focus on rice cereal as a first food. They certainly serve baby cereals, and they are important, but they’re not the focus of ‘food diversification’. There is a growing debate in the US about the use of processed white rice cereal as baby food. If you’re interested, check out Dr Greene’s ‘White-Out’ Campaign.

For a wonderful example of how a French mom feeds her baby, check out the French Foodie Baby blog — Hélène is a French mom living in the US, who offers a week-by-week account of feeding her 18 month old. This week’s recipe is salmon-wrapped leeks au gratin!!

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Did reading French Kids Eat Everything change the way that you feed your children? Your baby? Will you try anything new or different? If so, I would love to hear about it!

ps Yes, you’re right. The advice from French and American pediatricians is contradictory. Confusing, I know. My recommendation: do your own research, and talk to your health care provider about what makes sense for your family. I feel like I should insert a disclaimer here — this is not medical advice!! And please check the information here with your health care provider if you have any questions.

11 thoughts on “So what, exactly, do French parents feed their babies? Leeks and pumpkin, endive and chard…& more!”

I think your book will help a lot of people! My baby was born in Germany and they have some different ideas as well. For instance, they give a small amount of fennel tea to babies to ease gas in their tummies and aid digestion. I loved your cross cultural research because I think Americans tend to be really rigid in their ideas of nutrition and medicine, when I’ve seen hundreds of perfectly happy, healthy babies in France and Germany eating many different things that the AAP doesn’t even acknowledge. It would be interesting to have a sort of compilation and comparison of many different cultural nutrition habits throughout the world. Next project?

Love your book! My daughter has been wanting to star her son on solids by giving him purees in the bottle but no matter how well blended, even a tablespoon added to his formula in the bottle will not go through the nipple. This seems like a dumb question, but did you cut the holes bigger? How do you make the soup in a bottle idea work?

I have been eagerly waiting for your next book, “Getting To Yum,” to come out and was wondering if you knew when it will be released. I read your first book and posted on your blog last December. I can’t wait to get a copy of your new book as I my teach children how to eat!

Thank you so much for posting this. I read your book while I was pregnant with my daughter, she is now 16 months old. I introduced “solids” when she was about 5 months old. Since, sadly, I don’t speak French I had no idea what the recommendations were to introduce foods the French way. So I flew by the seat of my pants! She started with blended zucchini and lots of breast milk, then leeks, and since it was asparagus season, I couldn’t help myself. She absolutely loved it! And really it just went from there. It did help that she got all of her teeth a few months ago, but she eats everything. Literally. And eats exactly what we eat. No kids meals. Some of her favorites are elk tagine, olive tapenade crusted fish, oysters, and anything spicy. I love to cook, have a big garden, and get all of our meat locally. It has been so fun to have a child that loves food, helps me cook, enjoys having meals together, and is so healthy. Thank you for writing such a a great book, and always providing such helpful information.

I have been making some changes since reading your book. While eating whole foods prepared from scratch has always been my goal, I have frequently fallen short of that with my 6 yo and 3 yo. I followed the “baby lead weaning ” approach to introducing solids and they generally eat what we eat. But I had fallen into a rut lately. It seemed like they were getting increasingly picky. Like you mention in the book, I was more concerned about nutrition than educating their pallet. We have switched to four meals and cut out snacking. I am amazed at how well they are adjusting! My third will be ready to start solids soon and I will definitely be thinking “diversification” as I introduce new foods!

Our daughter is 7 months. We read French Kids Eat Everything while I was pregnant and loved it. We’ve been trying to incorporate the food philosophies but have had difficulties with her not gaining weight so I’ve had to nurse more often. We are trying to be varied in introducing solid foods and I’m excited to read through these links you provided about baby food. As much as I want to do everything the French way, I had to back off for the sake of her growth, but we are very much going to keep the philosophy there as she grows.

Great distillation of some of the information presented in your book! We are definitely more influenced by the French approach, and started our daughter on vegetable and fruit purees. For cereal, she has oatmeal (rolled oats) that I grind to a fine consistency before cooking, but no rice cereal.

I am making all our daughter’s food and was also warned about nitrates; however, I’ve not been able to find evidence that this is a real problem. I understand nitrate poisoning in infants has been documented, but related to the consumption of well water, not carrots, spinach, or other vegetables on the list. These days, given the number of food contaminations and recalls, the assurance that manufacturers are testing for nitrates doesn’t give me much comfort.

I read ‘French Kids Eat Everything’ as I was preparing to introducing our son to solid foods. It absolutely influenced our approach to eating as a family. I even started by adding vegetable soup to his bottles and at 10 months he prefers veggies more than fruit. We skipped purees, however, in favor of finger foods. I’ve been documenting our family’s journey at http://howtofeedahenry.blogspot.com/.

I am curious how the French would view the Baby-Led Weaning approach. I believe the two have very complimentary goals of encouraging kids to eat a wide variety of foods, avoiding mealtime battles, eliminating short-order cooking, and encouraging each child to listen to their own bodies signals of being hungry or not. What do you think?

Our whole family eats differently since I read ‘French Kids Eat Everything’! I am incredibly grateful because I have no concerns about taking my kids out, and I feel such (without being boastful) pride when my children are the ones eating well and politely at gatherings. With our youngest child (now almost 6 months and still not really eating solids) I do plan on taking a different approach to introducing foods.